Mumbai Indians remain in the hunt for the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) play-offs, albeit only mathematically, as they recorded a 7-wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday. Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai Indians captain who has not tasted much success this season, refused to participate in the IPL playoffs numbers when he was informed about it by former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar during the post-match presentation ceremony. For Hardik, the sole focus remains to get as many wins as possible in the remaining two matches and see where fate takes him and his team. (IPL 2024 points table)
The Mumbai Indians showed a much better all-round performance against the Sunrisers with Suryakumar Yadav coming up with a match-winning knock of 102 off just 51 balls. Hardik also looked astute with his bowling and captaincy decisions as MI handed SRH their third defeat in the last four matches.
But despite the win, Hardik is not getting carried away when it comes to MI's play-off chances.
“I don't know what mathematical situation we are talking about, but at the same time you want to concentrate on playing good cricket,” Hardik said in the post-match presentation, responding to Manjrekar's suggestion.
“The way our batters batted, it was excellent. My bowling, I like to bowl in the right areas, I bowl depending on the situation. I bowled in the right areas today and it worked. It was like Chawla had to go from the shorter areas bowling He (Chawla) had to be accurate, the margin of error has become less for the bowlers these days.
“It's unbelievable, SKY's best history is putting pressure on the bowlers. It's pure confidence, his game has changed, he's one of the best hitters. He can change a game in a different way, lucky he has him (SKY ) on our side,” Hardik further said at the presentation ceremony.
For MI to finish in the top 4 of the IPL this season, they not only need to win the remaining 2 matches in the league campaign, but also hope that a few other results will go in their favor. Even the margins of MI's wins in the last two matches have to be huge if they are to remain realistic.
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